Systems and methods for initiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwater drilling system

ABSTRACT

This disclosure is directed to initiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwater drilling system, which may include receiving at least one underwater image; identifying the reference object in the at least one underwater image, wherein a position of the reference object is fixed relative to an underwater borehole or an underwater cloud; determining a first parameter associated with the reference object; identifying the underwater cloud in the at least one underwater image; determining a second parameter associated with the underwater cloud; adjusting the second parameter associated with the underwater cloud based on the first parameter associated with the reference object; and initiating an adjustment of the operation associated with the underwater drilling system based on the adjusted second parameter associated with the underwater cloud.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a National stage application of International application NoPCT/US2020/017487, filed Feb. 10, 2020, which claims priority of U.S.application No. 62/916,814, filed 18 Oct. 2019 which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Generally, the present disclosure relates to methods and computingsystems for initiating adjustment of an operation with an underwaterdrilling system and/or for outputting one or more operation parametersassociated with an underwater drilling system.

BACKGROUND

Underwater drilling operations require constant monitoring to ensureintegrity of the output and equipment associated with the operations.Limitations to the existing monitoring include, among others: (1)subjective description and documentation that often rely on 24/7 humanmonitoring; (2) continuous trending not being captured and not beingquantified; and (3) time-lag in responding to abnormal events.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of initiating adjustmentof an operation associated with an underwater drilling system maycomprise receiving, using one or more computing device processors, atleast one underwater image; identifying, using the one or more computingdevice processors, the reference object in the at least one underwaterimage, wherein a position of the reference object is fixed relative toan underwater borehole or an underwater cloud, wherein execution of adrilling operation associated with the underwater borehole causesformation of the underwater cloud; determining, using the one or morecomputing device processors, a first parameter associated with thereference object; identifying, using the one or more computing deviceprocessors, the underwater cloud in the at least one underwater image;determining, using the one or more computing device processors, a secondparameter associated with the underwater cloud; adjusting, using the oneor more computing device processors, the second parameter associatedwith the underwater cloud based on the first parameter associated withthe reference object; and initiating, using one or more computing deviceprocessors, an adjustment of the operation associated with theunderwater drilling system based on the adjusted second parameterassociated with the underwater cloud.

In a second aspect, there is provided a computing system for outputtingone or more operation parameters associated with an underwater drillingsystem, the computing system comprising: at least one memory comprisinginstructions; and one or more computing device processors for executingthe instructions, wherein the instructions cause the one or morecomputing device processors to perform operations of: receiving at leastone underwater image; identifying, using the one or more computingdevice processors, the reference object in the at least one underwaterimage, wherein a position of the reference object is fixed relative toan underwater borehole or an underwater cloud, wherein execution of adrilling operation associated with the underwater borehole causesformation of the underwater cloud; determining a first parameterassociated with the reference object; identifying the underwater cloudin the at least one underwater image; determining a second parameterassociated with the underwater cloud; adjusting the second parameterassociated with the underwater cloud based on the first parameterassociated with the reference object; determining the one or moreoperation parameters associated with the underwater drilling systembased on the adjusted second parameter associated with the underwatercloud; and outputting the one or more operation parameters.

There is further provided a non-transitory computer-readable medium forinitiating an adjustment of the operation associated with the underwaterdrilling system comprises code configured for: receiving at least oneunderwater image comprising an underwater environment associated withthe underwater borehole or the underwater cloud; identifying, using theone or more computing device processors, the reference object in the atleast one underwater image, wherein a position of the reference objectis fixed relative to an underwater borehole or an underwater cloud,wherein execution of a drilling operation associated with the underwaterborehole causes formation of the underwater cloud; determining a firstparameter associated with the reference object; identifying theunderwater cloud in the at least one underwater image; determining asecond parameter associated with the underwater cloud; adjusting thesecond parameter associated with the underwater cloud based on the firstparameter associated with the reference object; and initiating anadjustment of the operation associated with the underwater drillingsystem based on the adjusted second parameter associated with theunderwater cloud.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B show a schematic block diagram of a system forinitiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwaterdrilling system.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart that schematically represents a method ofinitiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwaterdrilling system.

FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram of a server for control andmanipulation of images and data associated with disclosed systems andmethods for initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe relevant teachings. However, the present teachings may be practicedwith or without such specific details. In other instances, well-knownmethods, procedures, components, and/or circuitry have been described ata relatively high level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring aspects of the present teachings. The various technologiesdescribed in this specification generally relate to underwater drillingsystems, which may be used to pump oil and gas and other fluids or gasfrom an oil and gas reservoir. Specifically, this present disclosurerelates to monitoring, executing, and adjusting operations associatedwith an underwater drilling system. It is understood that any featuresof any embodiment described herein may be incorporated into any otherembodiment described herein. Features of different embodiments can becombined to form new embodiments. Further, any one or more of the steps,operations, etc., described herein may be performed in the orderdescribed or in any order. Any one or more of the steps, operations,etc., described herein may be removed and additional steps may be added.Although the present disclosure is related to underwater drillingsystems, it should also be understood that any one or more of themethods, systems, operations, etc., described herein may be associatedwith other drilling systems, e.g., above-water drilling systems,land-based drilling systems, etc., and that the term “underwater,” asused herein, is meant to be descriptive and not limiting. The term“underwater cloud,” as used herein, may refer to any dynamic object orevent, e.g., any solid, liquid, or gaseous event or object, which may beassociated with an underwater drilling system. An underwater cloud maybe expelled from an underwater borehole. An underwater cloud may formsymmetrically about a borehole, asymmetrically about a borehole, or awayfrom a borehole.

A proposed method of initiating adjustment of an operation associatedwith an underwater drilling system may comprise receiving at least oneunderwater image, identifying the reference object in the at least oneunderwater image, determining a first parameter associated with thereference object, identifying the underwater cloud in the at least oneunderwater image, determining a second parameter associated with theunderwater cloud, adjusting the second parameter associated with theunderwater cloud based on at least one of the first parameter associatedwith the reference object and the position of the reference objectrelative to the underwater borehole or the underwater cloud, andinitiating an adjustment of the operation associated with the underwaterdrilling system based on the adjusted second parameter associated withthe underwater cloud. The method uses one or more computing deviceprocessors.

The underwater cloud may be identified in the at least one underwaterimage using the one or more computing device processors. Saididentifying may further comprise performing a thresholding operation onthe underwater image. In some cases, preprocessing of the underwaterimage may be necessary or desired before performing said thresholdingoperation. In some cases preprocessing may be required to facilitate theexecution of the thresholding operation. Preprocessing may include oneor more of cropping the underwater image and applying contrastenhancement to the underwater image. Preprocessing may also includetransforming the underwater image into a second underwater image,whereby subsequent steps are performed on the second underwater imageinstead of the underwater image itself. Such transforming may includetransforming the image format or transforming to grey-scale imageformat.

Said performing of said thresholding operation on the underwater imagemay further comprise separating the underwater image into a first partof the underwater image and a second part of the underwater image, andwherein the first part of the underwater image comprises the underwatercloud. Separating the underwater image may comprise classifying, basedon a threshold, the first part of the underwater image and the secondpart of the underwater image.

The method may further comprise determining one or more operationparameters associated with the underwater drilling system based on theadjusted second parameter associated with the underwater cloud. The oneor more operation parameters may comprise one or more of flow rate,standpipe pressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipe movement, andsurface-measured pipe position, and downhole annulus pressure.

The method may further comprise generating a log of the one or moreoperation parameters as a function of time.

The method may further comprise synchronizing the one or more operationparameters with one or more additional operation parameters to generatea synchronized log of operation parameters. The one or more additionaloperation parameters may comprise one or more of flow rate, standpipepressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipe movement, andsurface-measured pipe position, and downhole annulus pressure.

The adjusted second parameter may suitably provide an indication of atleast one of a size, a length, a width, a height, a volume, or a rate ofchange of at least one of the size, the length, the width, the height,or the volume of the underwater cloud.

The one or more computing device processors may be located in one ormore computing systems comprised in at least one of an image-capturingsystem, a remote operating vehicle, the underwater drilling system, anunderwater computing system, the reference object, the underwaterborehole, or a remote computing system located remotely from theimage-capturing system, the remote operating vehicle, the underwaterdrilling system, the underwater computing system, the reference object,or the underwater borehole.

The adjusting of the second parameter may comprise or consist of scalingthe second parameter.

The image is suitably captured by an image-capturing system.

The reference object may comprise one or more of a drill pipe, awellhead, and a cylinder base.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium may be provided, whichcomprises code configured for initiating the adjustment of the operationassociated with the underwater drilling system as described above.

The code may further be configured to enhance the underwater image.

The code may further be configured for adding or editing visualinformation associated with a foreground or a background of theunderwater image.

There may further be provided a computing system for receiving at leastone underwater image and outputting one or more operation parametersassociated with an underwater drilling system, the computing systemcomprising: at least one memory comprising instructions; and one or morecomputing device processors for executing the instructions, wherein theinstructions cause the one or more computing device processors toperform operations of determining the one or more operation parametersassociated with the underwater drilling system based on the adjustedsecond parameter associated with the underwater cloud; and outputtingthe one or more operation parameters.

The instructions may further cause the one or more computing deviceprocessors to perform enhancing or augmenting of the underwater image.

Enhancing or augmenting the underwater image may further compriseenhancing or augmenting one or more of a foreground of the underwaterimage and a background of the underwater image. The foreground of theunderwater image comprises the underwater cloud.

The one or more operation parameters may comprise one or more of flowrate, standpipe pressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipe movement,surface-measured pipe position, and downhole annulus pressure.

The instructions may further cause the one or more computing deviceprocessors to perform synchronizing of the one or more operationparameters with one or more additional operation parameters associatedwith the underwater system to generate a synchronized log of operationparameters.

The first parameter or the second parameter may comprise at least one ofa height, a width, a depth, an orientation, or the position of thereference object or the underwater cloud, respectively.

The one or more computing device processors are comprised in thecomputing system or located in one or more external computing systems.

FIG. 1A illustrates a method 100 of initiating adjustment of anoperation 122 associated with an underwater drilling system. Asillustrated, an underwater drilling system 102 may comprise a drill pipe104, a guide base 106, a borehole 108, and an underwater cloud 112. FIG.1B illustrates one or more computing device processors 110 that mayfacilitate the methods disclosed here. The one or more computing deviceprocessors 110 may receive at least one underwater image 114. Anunderwater image 114 may comprise an image 114 of a reference object 116and an underwater cloud 112. One or more computing device processors 110may analyze the image 114 for quality and detect characteristics of anoperation parameter based on information both intrinsic and extrinsic tothe image 114. Results of an image analysis may be used to determine ifinitiating adjustment of an operation 122 is appropriate. Initiatingadjustment of an operation 122 may comprise adjustment of any operationor component associated with an underwater drilling system, e.g.,drilling, flow adjustments, inputs, outputs, materials, etc. Results ofan image analysis may be compiled to generate a virtual log 118 of anoperation parameter and a virtual log 118 may be combined with otherdata to generate a synchronized log 120 of operation parameters.

Although the one or more computing device processors 110 are illustratedin FIG. 1 as a single, stand-alone device, it should be appreciated thatthe computing functions described in this disclosure may be performed byone or multiple processors and that the terms system, apparatus, device,etc. may be used interchangeably in this specification. The one or morecomputing device processors 110 may be a component in a computing systemwhich may comprise one or more other components such as a memory,input/output center, communications center, and associated databases.Further, any servers, processors, processing instances, communicationscenters, memory or computing data storage areas, databases, etc., may beprovided by either stand-alone computing machines or through cloudimplementation or by a hybrid/enterprise/cloud architecture. The one ormore computing device processors may be located in one or more computingsystems comprised in at least one of an image-capturing system, a remoteoperating vehicle, the underwater drilling system, an underwatercomputing system, a reference object, a underwater borehole, or a remotecomputing system located remotely from an image-capturing system, aremote operating vehicle, an underwater drilling system, an underwatercomputing system, a reference object, or an underwater borehole.

Referring now to FIG. 2 , an underwater drilling system may comprise anunderwater cloud 112 which may be caused by any operation associatedwith an underwater drilling system. A suitable reference object 116 maycomprise any object, e.g., a drill pipe, a wellhead, a cylinder base,etc., that is in close enough proximity to the guide base 106, andtherefore the cloud 112, that the reference object 116 may besimultaneously captured in an image 114 of the guide base 106 or thecloud 112. The position of the reference object 116 may be fixedrelative to an underwater borehole 108 or an underwater cloud 112. Asused herein, “fixed” may mean that that a distance or an orientation ofthe object 116 relative to the underwater borehole 108 or the underwatercloud 112 may remain substantially constant or static over a period oftime. As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the reference object 116 is the drillpipe 104. The reference object 116 may be associated with one or moreparameters, which may include, without limitation, height, width, depth,orientation, and position. A parameter may be a value relative to adrill pipe 104, a guide base 106, a borehole 108, an underwater cloud112, or other component of an underwater drilling system 102, e.g.,distance from an underwater cloud 112, orientation in relation to anunderwater cloud 112. The parameter associated with the reference object112 may be the position of the reference object 116 to an underwaterborehole 108 or an underwater cloud 112.

A method of initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system may comprise receiving at least oneunderwater image 114 at one or more computing device processors 110. Anunderwater image 114 may comprise an image captured by animage-capturing system, which may comprise any one or a combination ofoptical and/or non-optical imaging devices, e.g. multi-beam sonarimaging devices, thermal imaging devices, sonic imaging devices,ultrasonic imaging devices, cameras, Echoscope, ARIS, etc. Animage-capturing system may comprise one or multiple imaging devices. Forexample, an image-capturing system may comprise multiple imaging deviceswhich may provide multiple viewpoints of the underwater drilling systemor any one or more of its components. An underwater image 114 maycomprise a digital and/or video image. An image-capturing system may belocated at a stationary point (e.g., a mounted frame, a component of theunderwater drilling system, a fixed viewing point), be mobile (e.g., ona remotely operated vehicle (ROV)), or comprise a combination ofstationary and mobile elements.

As illustrated in FIG. 2 , an underwater image 114 may comprise an imageof a reference object 116 and an underwater cloud 112. An underwaterimage 114 may be associated with other data, e.g., time stamp data, dataabout drilling parameters, data about rig state, etc. A method ofinitiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwaterdrilling system may comprise identifying the reference object 224 in theat least one underwater image 114. A regional convolution neural network(RCNN) may be used to identify the reference object 224. The accuracy ofidentifying the reference object 224 may be used as an indirect factorto evaluate the desirable qualification of the image 226. For example,factors such as image source positioning and blurriness of the image 114may be determined through the accuracy of identifying the referenceobject 224. Evaluating the desirable qualification of the image 226 maycomprise detecting dynamic events which may affect the quality of theimage 114. Dynamic events may be captured by evaluating the accuracy ofidentifying the reference object 226 across multiple images 114. Forexample, if the position of a reference object 116 in a first image isdifferent than the position of a reference object 116 in a second image,it may indicate that the source of the image source has shifted or beenaffected by a dynamic event. A method of initiating adjustment of anoperation associated with an underwater drilling system may comprisedetermining if an image quality threshold has been reached 228. Saiddetermining if an image quality threshold has been reached 228 maycomprise applying a weighted metric to one or more of the factors usedin evaluating the desirable qualification of the image 226 to determinea confidence score of the quality of the image 114. For example, onlyimages 114 with confidence scores above a threshold may be used forfurther analysis, e.g., operation parameter detection 230.

Operation parameter detection 230 may comprise determining a firstparameter associated with the reference object 232, identifying theunderwater cloud 234 in the at least one underwater image 114,determining a second parameter 236 associated with the underwater cloud112, and adjusting the second parameter 238 associated with theunderwater cloud 112 based on at least one of the first parameterassociated with the reference object and the position of the referenceobject relative to the underwater borehole or the underwater cloud.Determining a first parameter associated with the reference object 232may comprise determining one or more parameters associated with thereference object 116. Parameters may include, without limitation,height, width, depth, orientation, and position. A parameter may be avalue relative to a drill pipe 104, a guide base 106, a borehole 108, anunderwater cloud 112, or other component of an underwater drillingsystem 102, e.g., distance from the underwater cloud 112, orientation inrelation to the underwater cloud 112. The parameter may be determinedusing an image 114 or information contained in the image 114. A firstparameter, for example, may be a number of pixels comprising thereference object 116 in an image 114.

A method of initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system may comprise identifying the underwater cloud234 in the at least one underwater image. Said identifying of theunderwater cloud 234 may comprise cropping an underwater image 114,applying a contrast enhancement method to the underwater image 114,transforming the underwater image 114 into a second image, andperforming a thresholding operation on the underwater image 114. Theunderwater image 114 may be cropped to remove header and footer text. Acontrast enhancement method may be applied to the image 114 in order toimprove a contrast value associated with the image 114. The image 114may be transformed into a second image, e.g., a grey-scale image, and athresholding operation may be performed to separate the image 114 into aforeground and a background. The thresholding operation may comprise anyone or more of a binary thresholding operation comprising a fixedcut-off and an adaptive thresholding operation comprising dynamiccut-offs. A thresholding operation may be used to separate the image 114into a first part and a second part. The foreground of the image 114and/or the first part of the image 114 may comprise the underwater cloud112. The thresholding operation may be used to classify, based on athreshold value, the image 114 into said first part and said secondpart. The foreground of the image 114 and/or the first part of the image114 may comprise the underwater cloud 112. These and other operations tothe image 114 may be performed on the second image in cases where theimage 114 had been transformed into the second image.

It should be appreciated that any of the elements described foridentifying an underwater cloud, e.g., cropping the underwater image114, applying contrast enhancement method to the underwater image 114,transforming the underwater image 114 into said second image, andperforming a thresholding operation on the underwater image 114, may beused alone or in any combination, to perform other elements disclosedherein. For example, identifying a reference object 224 may comprise anyone or more of cropping an underwater image 114, applying a contrastenhancement method to the underwater image 114, transforming theunderwater image 114 into a second image, and performing a thresholdingoperation on the underwater image 114.

A method of initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system may comprise determining a second parameter236 associated with the underwater cloud. Determining said secondparameter 236 associated with the underwater cloud may comprisedetermining one or more parameters associated with the underwater cloud112. Parameters may include, without limitation, height, width, depth,orientation, and position. A parameter may be a value relative to adrill pipe 104, a guide base 106, a borehole 108, a reference object116, or other component of an underwater drilling system 102, e.g.,distance from a reference object 116, orientation in relation to areference object 116. The parameter may be determined using an image 114or information contained in the image 114. The second parameter may beone or more of a number of pixels comprising the underwater cloud 112 inan image 114, and a size of a foreground of an image 114 relative to abackground of an image 114 or a cropped image 114.

A method of initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system may comprise adjusting the second parameter238 associated with the underwater cloud based on at least one of afirst parameter associated with the reference object 116 and theposition of the reference object 116 relative to the underwater borehole108 or the underwater cloud 112. Adjusting the second parameter 238 maycomprise using the second parameter to extrapolate information about anoperation associated with an underwater drilling system. For example,information about an operation associated with an underwater drillingsystem may comprise any information about any operation associated withan underwater drilling system, e.g., flow severity, flow rate, standpipepressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipe movement, surface-measuredpipe position, downhole annulus pressure, relative size of theunderwater cloud 112, absolute size of the underwater cloud 112, etc.Adjusting the second parameter 238 associated with the underwater cloudbased on at least one of a first parameter associated with the referenceobject 116 and the position of the reference object 116 relative to theunderwater borehole 108 or the underwater cloud 112 may comprisecomparing the first parameter associated with the reference object 116,e.g., pixel width of the reference object 116 in the underwater image114, to the second parameter associated with the underwater cloud 112,e.g., pixel width of the underwater cloud 112 in the underwater image114, to determine an absolute size of the underwater cloud 112. Theabsolute size of the underwater cloud 112 may be any one or more ofheight, width, depth, volume, etc. Adjusting the second parameter 238associated with the underwater cloud based on at least one of a firstparameter associated with the reference object 116 and the position ofthe reference object 116 relative to the underwater borehole 108 or theunderwater cloud 112 may comprise using the absolute size of theunderwater cloud 112 to determine a parameter associated with anoperation associated with an underwater drilling system, e.g., flowseverity, flow rate, standpipe pressure, mud weight, surface-measuredpipe movement, surface-measured pipe position, downhole annuluspressure, etc. The adjusted second parameter may be an indication of atleast one of a size, a length, a width, a height, a volume, or a rate ofchange of at least one of the size, the length, the width, the height,or the volume of the underwater cloud. The rate of change may comprise arate of increase. A rate of increase may be indicative of a kick,wherein a kick may comprise formation fluids, e.g., oil, natural gas,water, etc., flowing into the wellbore and up the annulus and/or insidethe drill pipe. The rate of change may comprise a rate of decrease. Arate of decrease may be indicative of fluid loss into the formation.

The proposed method of initiating an adjustment of an operationassociated with an underwater drilling system may comprise outputtingthe one or more operation parameters. The one or more operationparameters may be converted into a virtual log of operation parameters118. For example, by indexing a result of an operation parameterdetection 230, e.g., with a time stamp, operation parameters may becompiled across multiple images 114 and used to generate a virtual logof operation parameters 118 as a function of a variable, e.g., time, afirst parameter, a second parameter, an image 114, etc. The virtual logof operation parameters 118 may comprise a virtual log of return flowseverity as a function of underwater cloud 112 size. A virtual log ofoperation parameters 118 may be synchronized with one or more additionaloperation parameters, e.g., standpipe pressure, relative clump size,surface drilling parameters, flow rate, standpipe pressure, mud weight,surface-measured pipe movement, surface-measured pipe position, downholeannulus pressure, etc., to generate a synchronized log 120 of operationparameters. The synchronized log 120 of operation parameters maycomprise one or more of virtual flow severity, relative clump size, flowrate, standpipe pressure, and annulus pressure. The synchronized log 120of operation parameters may comprise individually synchronized operationparameters and may be generated independent of a virtual log ofoperation parameters 118, e.g., a virtual log of operation parameters118 may not be generated at all.

A method of initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system may comprise initiating an adjustment 122 ofan operation associated with the underwater drilling system based on anadjusted second parameter associated with the underwater cloud 112. Anadjustment of an operation parameter may be any one or more of a manualadjustment and an automatic adjustment. Such an automatic adjustment maycomprise sending an adjustment instruction to an underwater drillingsystem. Initiation of an adjustment may be based on one or more of anadjusted second parameter associated with an underwater cloud 112, afirst parameter, a virtual log 118 of operation parameters, and asynchronized log 120 of operation parameters. The adjusted secondparameter may be measured against a threshold value for the adjustedsecond parameter, where an adjusted second parameter above or below thethreshold value may trigger initiation of an adjustment 122 of anoperation associated with an underwater drilling system. The thresholdvalue may be one or more of a preset value, a predetermined value, avalue based on a virtual log 118 of an operation parameter, and a valuebased on a synchronized log 120 of an operation parameter.

Referring now to FIG. 3 , an operating system for initiating adjustmentof an operation associated with an underwater drilling system maycomprise one or more servers 350, where the one or more servers 350 maycomprise at least one memory 380 comprising server instructions, and atleast one processing device 310 configured for executing the serverinstructions. The server instructions may cause the at least oneprocessing device 310 to perform one or more functions of receiving atleast one underwater image, identifying the reference object in the atleast one underwater image, determining a first parameter associatedwith the reference object, identifying the underwater cloud in the atleast one underwater image, determining a second parameter associatedwith the underwater cloud, adjusting the second parameter associatedwith the underwater cloud based on at least one of the first parameterassociated with the reference object and the position of the referenceobject relative to the underwater borehole or the underwater cloud, andinitiating an adjustment of the operation associated with the underwaterdrilling system based on the adjusted second parameter associated withthe underwater cloud. A computing system or server associated with anunderwater drilling system may be one or more local (e.g., in theunderwater drilling system) or remote systems (e.g., over water), whichmay be located external or internal to the reference object, the cloud,the borehole, etc. Any one or more of the units or subsystems describedbelow may be optional and may be present in the same computing system orin disparate, e.g., local or remote, computing systems which may be innetwork communication with each other.

The one or more servers 350 may comprise, among other elements, anycombination of one or more processing units 310, at least one memory380, one or more input/output (I/O) units 390, and one or morecommunications centers 395. Each of the processor 310, the memory 380,the I/O 310, and communication center 395 may include a plurality ofrespective units, subunits, and/or elements. Furthermore, each of theprocessor 310, the memory 380, the I/O 390, and the communication center395 may be operatively or otherwise communicatively coupled with eachother so as to facilitate the methods and techniques described herein.

The processor 310 may control any one or more of the memory 380, the I/O390, the communication center 395, or any other unit which may includethe server 350, as well as any included subunits, elements, components,devices, or functions performed by each or a combination of the memory380, the I/O 390, the communication center 395 or any other unit whichmay include the server 350. Any of the elements or sub-elements of theserver 350 presented here may also be included in a similar fashion inany of the other units, subunits, and devices included in the underwaterdrilling system of FIG. 1 . Additionally, any actions described hereinas being performed by a processor 310 may be taken by the processor 310alone, or by the processor 310 in conjunction with one or moreadditional processors, units, subunits, elements, components, devices,and the like. Additionally, while only one processor 310 may be shown inthe figures included here, multiple processors may be present orotherwise included in the server 350 or elsewhere in the system of FIG.1 . Thus, while instructions may be described as being executed by theprocessor 310 or the various subunits of the processor 361, 362, 363,364, 365, the instructions may be executed simultaneously, serially, orotherwise by one or more multiple processors 310.

The processor 310 may be implemented as one or more computer processor(CPU) chips, graphical processor (GPU) chips, or some combination of CPUchips and GPU chips, and may include a hardware device capable ofexecuting computer instructions. The processor 310 may execute anycombination of instructions, codes, computer programs, and scripts. Theinstructions, codes, computer programs, and scripts may be receivedfrom, stored in, or received from and stored in any combination of thememory 380, the I/O 390, the communication center 395, subunits of thepreviously described elements, other devices, other computingenvironments.

The processor 310 may include, among other elements, subunits. Subunitsmay include any combination of a profile manager 361, a content manager362, a geolocation finder 363, a graphical processor 364, and a resourceallocator 365. Each of these subunits of the processor 310 may becommunicatively or otherwise operably coupled with each other.

The profile manager 361 may facilitate any combination of generation,modification, analysis, transmission, and presentation of a user profileassociated with a user. The profile manager 361 may also control orutilize an element of the I/O 390 to enable a user to associate an imagewith themselves or another person. The profile manager 361 may receive,process, analyze, organize, transform, or any combination of these, anyreceived from the user or another computing element as to generate auser profile of a user.

The content manager 362 may facilitate any combination of generation,modification, analysis, transmission, and presentation of any mediacontent associated with systems and methods of initiating adjustment ofan operation associated with an underwater drilling system.

The geolocation finder 363, particularly in communication withgeolocation information provided by available GPS subsystems which maybe present elsewhere in an underwater drilling system, may facilitateany combination of detection, generation, modification, analysis,transmission, and presentation of location information. Locationinformation may include any combination of global positioning system(GPS) coordinates, an internet protocol (IP) address, a media accesscontrol (MAC) address, geolocation information, an address, a portnumber, a zip code, a server number, a proxy name, a proxy number,device information, serial numbers, and the like. The geolocation finder363 may include any one or a combination of various sensors,specifically-purposed hardware elements for enabling the geolocationfinder 363 to acquire, measure, and transform location information.

The graphical processor (GPU) 364 may facilitate any combination ofgeneration, modification, analysis, processing, transmission, andpresentation of visual content. The GPU 364 may be configured to receivemultiple images associated with an underwater drilling system andperform analysis on and/or modifications to the images. Such analysismay include comparison of current images to past images in any one ormore of the manners described above. Further, the GPU 364 may beconfigured to facilitate adjustments to videos and images. The GPU 364may also be configured to render visual content for presentation on adevice and/or to analyze visual content for metadata associated with acomponent of an underwater drilling system or with a specific underwaterdrilling system. This visual content may include a real-time image of anunderwater drilling system or any of its components. The GPU 364 mayinclude multiple GPUs and may therefore be configured to perform and/orexecute multiple processes in parallel.

The resource allocator 365 may facilitate any one or combination of thedetermination, monitoring, analysis, and allocation of resourcesthroughout the server 350, the underwater drilling system, any componentof the system, or other computing environments. For example, theresource allocator 365 may facilitate interaction between the server350, any subunit of the server 350, and a high volume (e.g., multiple)of users, inputs, imaging sources, etc. As such, computing resources ofthe server 350 utilized by any one or a combination of the processor310, the memory 380, the I/O 390, the communication center 395, and anysubunit of these units, such as processing power, data storage space,network bandwidth, and the like may be in high demand at various timesduring operation. Accordingly, the resource allocator 365 may beconfigured to manage the allocation of various computing resources asthey are required by particular units or particular subunits of theserver 350.

The resource allocator 365 may include sensors and/or otherspecially-purposed hardware for monitoring performance of each unitand/or subunit of the server 350, as well as hardware for responding tothe computing resource needs of each unit or subunit. The resourceallocator 365 may utilize computing resources of a second computingenvironment separate and distinct from the server 350 to facilitate adesired operation.

Factors affecting the allocation of computing resources by the resourceallocator 365 may include the number of ongoing connections and/or othercommunication channel connections, a duration during which computingresources are required by one or more elements of the server 350, and/orthe like. Computing resources may be allocated to and/or distributedamongst a plurality of second computing environments included in theserver 350 based on one or more factors mentioned above. The allocationof computing resources of the resource allocator 365 may include one ormore resource allocators 365 flipping a switch, adjusting processingpower, adjusting memory size, partitioning a memory element,transmitting data, controlling one or more input and/or output devices,modifying various communication protocols, and the like. The resourceallocator 365 may facilitate utilization of parallel processingtechniques such as dedicating a plurality of GPUs included in theprocessor 310 for processing high-quality analysis and manipulation ofimages and/or videos.

The memory 380 may be utilized for one or any combination of storing,recalling, receiving, transmitting, and/or accessing various filesand/or information during operation of the server 350. For example, thememory 380 may be utilized for storing images and/or videos associatedwith systems and methods of initiating adjustment of an operationassociated with an underwater drilling system. The memory 380 mayadditionally be used for storing, recalling, and/or updating user ordrilling system information and the like. The memory 380 may includevarious types of data storage media such as solid state storage media,hard disk storage media, and any other type of data storage medium whichmay be known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. The memory 380may include dedicated hardware elements such as hard drives and/orservers, as well as software elements such as cloud-based storagedrives. For example, the memory unit 380 may include various subunitssuch as an operating system unit 381, an application data unit 382, anapplication programming interface (API) unit 383, a profile storage unit384, a content storage unit 385, a video storage unit 386, a secureenclave 387, and/or a cache storage unit 388.

The memory 380 and any of its subunits described here may include anyone or any combination of random access memory (RAM), read only memory(ROM), and various forms of secondary storage. RAM may be used to storevolatile data and/or to store instructions that may be executed by theprocessor 310. For example, the data stored may be any one or acombination of a command, a current operating state of the server 350,an intended operating state of the server 350, and the like. As afurther example, data stored in the memory 380 may include instructionsrelated to various methods and/or functionalities described here. ROMmay be a non-volatile memory device that may have a smaller memorycapacity than the memory capacity of a secondary storage. ROM may beused to store instructions and/or data that may be read during executionof computer instructions. Access to both RAM and ROM may be faster thanaccess to secondary storage. Secondary storage may include one or moredisk drives and/or tape drives and may be used for non-volatile storageof data or as an over-flow data storage device if RAM is not largeenough to hold all working data. Secondary storage may be used to storeprograms that may be loaded into RAM when such programs are selected forexecution. The memory 380 may include one or more databases for storingany data described here. Additionally or alternatively, one or moresecondary databases located remotely from the server 350 may be utilizedand/or accessed by the memory 380.

The operating system unit 381 may facilitate deployment, storage,access, execution, and/or utilization of an operating system utilized bythe server 350 and/or any other computing environment described herein.The operating system may include various hardware and/or softwareelements that serve as a structural framework for enabling the processor310 to execute various operations such as the analysis of images,generation of data and/or parameters, e.g., a first parameter, a secondparameter, etc., controlling a user interface, etc. The operating systemunit 381 may further store various pieces of information and/or dataassociated with operation of the operating system and/or the server 350as a whole, such as a status of computing resources (e.g., processingpower, memory availability, resource utilization, and/or the like),runtime information, modules to direct execution of operations describedherein, user permissions, security credentials, and the like.

The application data unit 382 may facilitate deployment, storage,access, execution, and/or utilization of an application utilized by theserver 550 or any other computing environment described herein. Forexample, it may be desirable for a user to download, access, and/orotherwise utilize a software application on a user device such as asmartphone or other internet-enabled device in order to monitor any oneor more of the various operations described herein to be performed. Assuch, the application data unit 382 may store any information and/ordata associated with the application which may allow the applicationand/or user device to monitor, initiate, or otherwise access the methodsand systems associated with initiating adjustment of an operationassociated with an underwater drilling system. As such, informationincluded in the application data unit 382 may enable a user to executevarious operations described here. The application data unit 382 mayfurther store various pieces of information and/or data associated withoperation of the application and/or the server 350 as a whole, such as astatus of computing resources (e.g., processing power, memoryavailability, resource utilization, and/or the like), runtimeinformation, modules to direct execution of operations described herein,user permissions, security credentials, and the like.

The application programming interface (API) unit 383 may facilitatedeployment, storage, access, execution, and/or utilization ofinformation associated with APIs of the server 350 and/or any othercomputing environment described herein (e.g., a user device, systemcomponent, etc.). For example, server 350 may include one or more APIsfor enabling various devices, applications, and/or computingenvironments to communicate with the server 350, multiple other servers,databases, or other user devices. Accordingly, the API unit 383 mayinclude API databases containing information that may be accessed and/orutilized by applications and/or operating systems of other devices,components, and/or computing environments associated with initiatingadjustment of an operation associated with an underwater drillingsystem. An API may direct communications between any component of theunderwater drilling system and the server 550. Each API database may beassociated with a customized physical circuit included in the memoryunit 380 and/or the API unit 383. Additionally, each API database may bepublic and/or private, and so authentication credentials may be requiredto access information in an API database.

The profile storage unit 384 may facilitate deployment, storage, access,and/or utilization of information associated with any user profiles ofany system user by the server 350 and any other computing environmentdescribed here (e.g., a user device, system components, etc.). Forexample, the profile storage unit 384 may store one or more of a user'scontact information, authentication credentials, user preferences, userhistory, personal information, and metadata. The profile storage unit384 may store any images associated with a particular or group of usersand/or underwater drilling systems for analysis, etc. The profilestorage unit 384 may communicate with the profile management unit 361 toreceive and/or transmit information associated with a user's profile.

The content storage unit 385 may facilitate deployment, storage, access,and/or utilization of information associated with requested content bythe server 350 and/or any other computing environment described here.For example, the content storage unit 385 may store one or more ofimages, text, analytical data, historical data, metadata, etc. to beutilized during operations described herein. The content storage unit385 may communicate with the content management unit 362 to receiveand/or transmit content files.

The media storage unit 386 may facilitate one or more of deployment,storage, access, analysis, and utilization of media content by theserver 350 and any other computing environment described herein. Mediacontent may be images, videos, audio files, and any other form ofcommunicative media. For example, the media storage unit 386 may storeone or more underwater images which may be utilized in association withinitiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwaterdrilling system. Further, the media storage unit 386 may store one ormore images which have been manipulated by any unit or subunit of aserver 350 or other component of an underwater system. For example, themedia storage unit 386 may store underwater images of an underwaterdrilling system. Media content generated or used in performing any ofthe methods disclosed here may be stored in the media storage unit 386so that the media content may be analyzed by various components of theserver 350 both in real time and at a time after receipt of the mediacontent. The media storage unit 386 may communicate with the GPUs 364 tofacilitate any of the processes described here. Media content mayinclude audio, images, text, video feeds, analytical results, graphicalrepresentations of results and/or analyses, and/or any other mediacontent associated with systems and methods of initiating adjustment ofan operation associated with an underwater drilling system.

The secure enclave 387 may facilitate secure storage of data. The secureenclave 387 may include a partitioned portion of storage media includedin the memory unit 380 that is protected by various security measures.For example, the secure enclave 387 may be hardware secured. The secureenclave 387 may include one or more firewalls, encryption mechanisms,and/or other security-based protocols. Authentication credentials may berequired prior to providing access to data stored within the secureenclave 387. The secure enclave 387 may store sensitive informationassociated with systems and methods of initiating adjustment of anoperation associated with an underwater drilling system.

The cache storage unit 388 may facilitate short-term deployment,storage, access, analysis, and/or utilization of data. The cache storageunit 388 may serve as a short-term storage location for data so that thedata stored in the cache storage unit 388 may be accessed quickly. Thecache storage unit 388 may include RAM and/or other storage media typesthat enable quick recall of stored data. The cache storage unit 388 mayinclude a partitioned portion of storage media included in the memory380. The cache storage unit 388 may store data associated withinitiating adjustment of an operation associated with an underwaterdrilling system, computational instructions for analysis of imagesassociated with initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system, or other data which may be frequently usedin any of the processes, method, etc., associated with initiatingadjustment of an operation associated with an underwater drillingsystem.

The I/O unit 390 may include hardware and/or software elements forenabling the server 350 to receive, transmit, and/or presentinformation. For example, elements of the I/O unit 390 may be used toreceive input from a component of an underwater drilling system, e.g.,an image source, a data source, etc., present manipulated images ormanipulated video of one or more components of an underwater drillingsystem, e.g., a reference object, an underwater cloud, etc., and thelike. In this manner, the I/O unit 390 may enable the server 350 tointerface with a human user in a manner such that, where appropriate,the user may use the methods described here. As described, the I/O unit390 may include subunits such as one or a combination of an I/O device391, I/O calibration unit 392, and/or video driver 393.

The I/O device 390 may facilitate any one or any combination of thereceipt, transmission, processing, presentation, display, input, andoutput of information as a result of executed processes described here.The I/O device 390 may include a plurality of I/O devices. The I/Odevice 390 may include one or more elements of any one or a combinationof a component of an underwater system, a computing system, a server350, and a similar device.

The I/O device 391 may include a variety of elements that enable a useror a component of an underwater drilling system to interface with theserver 350. For example, the I/O device 391 may include a keyboard, atouchscreen, a button, a sensor, a biometric scanner, a laser, amicrophone, a camera, an internet-enabled device, and/or another elementfor receiving and/or collecting input from a user or from a component ofan underwater drilling system. Additionally and/or alternatively, theI/O device 391 may include a display, a screen, a sensor, a vibrationmechanism, a light emitting diode (LED), a speaker, a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) scanner, and/or another element for presentingand/or otherwise outputting data to a user or to a component of anunderwater drilling system, including a means to send instructions toany one or more components which may be associated with an operationassociated with initiating adjustment of an operation associated with anunderwater drilling system. The I/O device 391 may communicate with oneor more elements of the processor 310 and/or the memory unit 380 toexecute operations described herein. For example, the I/O device 391 mayinclude a display, which may utilize the GPU 564 to present mediacontent stored in the media storage unit 586 to a user of a user device120, including but not limited to previous images and/or videos.

The I/O calibration unit 392 may facilitate the calibration of the I/Odevice 511. For example, the I/O calibration unit 392 may detect and/ordetermine one or more settings of the I/O device 391, and then adjustand/or modify settings so that the I/O device 391 may operate moreefficiently. For example, the I/O calibration unit may determine thesuitability of a captured image of an underwater drilling system forfurther analysis. The I/O calibration unit 392 may utilize a mediadriver 393 (or multiple media drivers) to calibrate the I/O device 391.The calibration unit 392 may also be operable to determine the ambientlevel of lighting, levels of contrast, etc., so as to provide a baselinefor later image comparisons. The media driver 393 may be installed on auser device so that the user device may recognize and/or integrate withthe I/O device 391, thereby enabling media content to be displayed,received, generated, and the like. The I/O device 391 may be calibratedby the I/O calibration unit 392 by based on information included in themedia driver 393.

The communication center 395 may facilitate establishment, maintenance,monitoring, and/or termination of communications between the server 350and other components of an underwater drilling system, other computingenvironments, third party server systems, and the like. Thecommunication center 395 may further enable communication betweenvarious elements (e.g., units and/or subunits) of the server 350 asneeded to carry out any one or more of the functions associated withsystems and methods of initiating adjustment of an operation associatedwith an underwater drilling system. The communication center 395 mayinclude a network protocol unit 396, an API gateway 397, an encryptionengine 398, and/or a communication device 399. The communication center395 may include hardware and/or software elements.

The network protocol unit 396 may facilitate establishment, maintenance,and/or termination of a communication connection between the server 350and any other component of an underwater drilling system and/or anotherdevice by way of a network. For example, the network protocol unit 396may detect and/or define a communication protocol required by aparticular network and/or network type. Communication protocols utilizedby the network protocol unit 348 may include Wi-Fi protocols, Li-Fiprotocols, cellular data network protocols, Bluetooth® protocols, WiMAXprotocols, Ethernet protocols, power line communication (PLC) protocols,and the like. Facilitation of communication between the server 350 andany other component of an underwater drilling system and/or otherdevice, as well as any element internal to the server 350, may includetransforming and/or translating data from being compatible with a firstcommunication protocol to being compatible with a second communicationprotocol. The network protocol unit 396 may determine and/or monitor anamount of data traffic to consequently determine which particularnetwork protocol is to be used for establishing a connection with acomponent of an underwater drilling system, device, transmitting data,and/or performing other operations described herein.

The API gateway 397 may facilitate the enablement of other devicesand/or computing environments to access the API unit 383 of the memory380 of the server 350. For example, a user device may access the APIunit 383 via the API gateway 397. The API gateway 397 may be required tovalidate user credentials associated with a user prior to providingaccess to the API unit 383 to the user. The API gateway 397 may includeinstructions for enabling the server 350 to communicate with anotherdevice.

The encryption engine 398 may facilitate any one or any combination oftranslation, encryption, encoding, decryption, and decoding ofinformation received, transmitted, and/or stored by the server 350. Forexample, the encryption engine 398 may encrypt data associated with acomponent of an underwater drilling system, historical and/or analyticaldata, images, etc. Using the encryption engine, each transmission ofdata may be encrypted, encoded, and/or translated for security reasons,and any received data may be encrypted, encoded, and/or translated priorto its processing and/or storage. The encryption engine 398 may generateany one or combination of an encryption key, an encoding key, atranslation key, and the like, which may be transmitted along with anydata content.

The communication device 399 may include a variety of hardware and/orsoftware specifically purposed to enable communication between theserver 350 and another component of an underwater drilling system and/orother device, as well as communication between elements of the server350. The communication device 399 may include one or more radiotransceivers, chips, analog front end (AFE) units, antennas, processors,memory, other logic, and/or other components to implement communicationprotocols (wired or wireless) and related functionality for facilitatingcommunication between the server 350 and any other device and/orcomponent. Additionally and/or alternatively, the communication device399 may include a modem, a modem bank, an Ethernet device such as arouter or switch, a universal serial bus (USB) interface device, aserial interface, a token ring device, a fiber distributed datainterface (FDDI) device, a wireless local area network (WLAN) deviceand/or device component, a radio transceiver device such as codedivision multiple access (CDMA) device, a global system for mobilecommunications (GSM) radio transceiver device, a universal mobiletelecommunications system (UMTS) radio transceiver device, a long termevolution (LTE) radio transceiver device, a worldwide interoperabilityfor microwave access (WiMAX) device, and/or another device used forcommunication purposes.

As used herein, the term “signal” may refer to a single signal ormultiple signals. The term “signals” may refer to a single signal ormultiple signals. Any reference to a signal may be a reference to anattribute of the signal.

Any transmission, reception, connection, or communication may occurusing any short-range (e.g., Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, near fieldcommunication, Wi-Fi Direct, etc.) or long-range communication mechanism(e.g., Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, anytransmission, reception, connection, or communication may occur usingwired technologies. Any transmission, reception, or communication mayoccur directly between systems or indirectly via one or more systemssuch as servers.

The present disclosure provides several important technical advantagesthat will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from thefigures, descriptions, and claims. Moreover, while specific advantageshave been enumerated above, various embodiments may include all, some,or none of the enumerated advantages. Any sentence or statement in thisdisclosure may be associated with one or more embodiments.

While various embodiments in accordance with the disclosed principleshave been described above, it should be understood that they have beenpresented by way of example only, and are not limiting. Furthermore, anyreference in this disclosure to “invention” in the singular should notbe used to argue that there is only a single point of novelty in thisdisclosure. Multiple inventions may be set forth herein.

We claim:
 1. A method of initiating adjustment of an operationassociated with an underwater drilling system, the method comprising:executing a drilling operation comprising drilling an underwaterborehole; receiving, using one or more computing device processors, atleast one underwater image; identifying, using the one or more computingdevice processors, a reference object in the at least one underwaterimage, wherein a position of the reference object is fixed relative tothe underwater borehole; determining, using the one or more computingdevice processors, a first parameter associated with the referenceobject; identifying, using the one or more computing device processors,an underwater cloud, which is being expelled from the underwaterborehole, in the at least one underwater image; determining, using theone or more computing device processors, a second parameter associatedwith the underwater cloud; adjusting, using the one or more computingdevice processors, the second parameter associated with the underwatercloud based on the first parameter associated with the reference object;and initiating, using one or more computing device processors, anadjustment of the operation associated with the underwater drillingsystem based on the adjusted second parameter associated with theunderwater cloud.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying, usingthe one or more computing device processors, the underwater cloud in theat least one underwater image further comprises performing athresholding operation on the underwater image.
 3. The method of claim2, wherein performing the thresholding operation on the underwater imagefurther comprises separating the underwater image into a first part ofthe underwater image and a second part of the underwater image, andwherein the first part of the underwater image comprises the underwatercloud.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein separating the underwater imagecomprises classifying, based on a threshold, the first part of theunderwater image and the second part of the underwater image.
 5. Themethod of claim 2, wherein preprocessing the underwater image beforeperforming said thresholding operation, comprising one or more of:cropping the underwater image; applying contrast enhancement to theunderwater image; and transforming the underwater image into a secondunderwater image.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprisingdetermining one or more operation parameters associated with theunderwater drilling system based on the adjusted second parameterassociated with the underwater cloud.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinthe one or more operation parameters comprises one or more of flow rate,standpipe pressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipe movement, andsurface-measured pipe position, and downhole annulus pressure.
 8. Themethod of claim 6, further comprising generating a log of the one ormore operation parameters as a function of time.
 9. The method of claim6, further comprising synchronizing the one or more operation parameterswith one or more additional operation parameters to generate asynchronized log of operation parameters, wherein the one or moreoperation parameters comprise one or more of flow rate, standpipepressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipe movement, andsurface-measured pipe position, and downhole annulus pressure, andwherein the one or more additional operation parameters comprise one ormore of flow rate, standpipe pressure, mud weight, surface-measured pipemovement, and surface-measured pipe position, and downhole annuluspressure, and wherein the synchronized log of operation parameterscomprises one or more of virtual flow severity, relative clump size,flow rate, standpipe pressure, and annulus pressure.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the adjusted second parameter provides anindication of at least one of a size, a length, a width, a height, avolume, or a rate of change of at least one of the size, the length, thewidth, the height, or the volume of the underwater cloud.
 11. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the one or more computing deviceprocessors are located in one or more computing systems comprised in atleast one of an image-capturing system, a remote operating vehicle, theunderwater drilling system, an underwater computing system, thereference object, the underwater borehole, or a remote computing systemlocated remotely from the image-capturing system, the remote operatingvehicle, the underwater drilling system, the underwater computingsystem, the reference object, or the underwater borehole.
 12. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein adjusting the second parameter comprisesscaling the second parameter.
 13. The method according to claim 1,wherein the image is captured by an image-capturing system.
 14. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the reference object comprises oneor more of a drill pipe a wellhead, and a cylinder base.
 15. The methodof claim 1, wherein the first parameter comprises at least one of aheight, a width, a depth, an orientation, or the position of thereference object.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondparameter comprises at least one of a height, a width, a depth, anorientation, or the position of the underwater cloud.
 17. A computingsystem for outputting one or more operation parameters associated withan underwater drilling system, the computing system comprising: at leastone memory comprising instructions; and one or more computing deviceprocessors for executing the instructions, wherein the instructionscomprising: instructions for receiving at least one underwater image;instructions for identifying, using the one or more computing deviceprocessors, a reference object in the at least one underwater image,wherein a position of the reference object is fixed relative to theunderwater borehole; instructions for determining a first parameterassociated with the reference object; instructions for identifying, inthe at least one underwater image, an underwater cloud which is beingexpelled from the underwater borehole; instructions for determining asecond parameter associated with the underwater cloud; instructions foradjusting the second parameter associated with the underwater cloudbased on the first parameter associated with the reference object;instructions for determining the one or more operation parametersassociated with the underwater drilling system based on the adjustedsecond parameter associated with the underwater cloud; and instructionsfor outputting the one or more operation parameters.
 18. The computingsystem of claim 17, wherein the instructions further comprisinginstructions for enhancing or augmenting of the underwater image. 19.The computing system of claim 17, wherein the one or more computingdevice processors are comprised in the computing system or located inone or more external computing systems.
 20. A non-transitorycomputer-readable medium including instructions for initiating anadjustment of the operation associated with the underwater drillingsystem, the instructions comprising: instructions for receiving at leastone underwater image; instructions for identifying, using the one ormore computing device processors, a reference object in the at least oneunderwater image, wherein a position of the reference object is fixedrelative to the underwater borehole; instructions for determining afirst parameter associated with the reference object; instructions foridentifying, in the at least one underwater image, an underwater cloudwhich is being expelled from the underwater borehole; instructions fordetermining a second parameter associated with the underwater cloud;instructions for adjusting the second parameter associated with theunderwater cloud based on the first parameter associated with thereference object; and instructions for initiating an adjustment of theoperation associated with the underwater drilling system based on theadjusted second parameter associated with the underwater cloud.